At the southern end of Damrak, the Dam (or Dam Square), where the Amstel was first dammed, is the centre of the city, its tusk-like War Memorial serving as a meeting place for tourists. On the western side, the Royal Palace (June-Oct daily 11am-5pm; Nov-May opening hours variable; ?4.30; www.kon-paleisamsterdam.nl ) was originally built as the city hall in the mid-seventeenth century. It received its royal monicker in 1808 when Napoleon's brother Louis commandeered it as the one building fit for a king. He was forced to abdicate in 1810, leaving behind a sizeable amount of the Empire furniture. Vying for importance is the adjacent Nieuwe Kerk (open only during exhibitions; www.nieuwekerk.nl ), a fifteenth-century structure rebuilt several times, which is now used only for exhibitions and state occasions. Inside rest numerous names from Dutch history, among them the seventeenth-century naval hero Admiral de Ruyter, who lies in an opulent tomb in the choir, and the poet Vondel, commemorated by a small urn near the entrance.
South of Dam Square, Rokin follows the old course of the Amstel River, lined with grandiose nineteenth-century mansions. Running parallel, Kalverstraat is a monotonous strip of clothes shops, halfway down which, at no. 92, a gateway forms the entrance to the former orphanage that's now the Amsterdam Historical Museum (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm; ?6.10; www.ahm.nl ), where artefacts, paintings and documents survey the city's development from the thirteenth century. Directly outside, the glassed-in Civic Guard Gallery draws passers-by with free glimpses of the large company portraits. Just around the corner, off Sint Luciensteeg, the Begijnhof is a small court of seventeenth-century buildings; the poor and elderly led a religious life here, celebrating Mass in their own, concealed, Catholic Church. The plain and unadorned English Reformed Church, which takes up one side of the Begijnhof, has pulpit panels designed by the young Piet Mondriaan. Close by, the Spui (pronounced spow ) is a lively corner of town whose mixture of bookshops and packed bars centres around a cloying statue of a young boy known as 't Lieverdje (Little Darling). In the opposite direction, Kalverstraat comes to an end at Muntplein and the Munttoren - originally a mint and part of the city walls, topped with a spire by Hendrik de Keyser in 1620. Across the Singel canal is the fragrant daily Flower Market , while in the other direction Reguliersbreestraat turns left towards the loud restaurants of Rembrandtplein . To the south is Reguliersgracht, an appealing canal with seven distinctive steep bridges stretching in a perspectival line from Thorbeckeplein.
